The Armed Forces of Malta on Wednesday evening rescued some 25 irregular immigrants who were reported to be drifting at sea by a motor tanker.
In a statement, the ADM said that early on Wednesday afternoon, the motor tanker Salamina informed the AFM's Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC Malta) that a boatload of migrants had been sighted drifting at sea at approximately 70 miles south of the Maltese islands.
The Salamina was instructed to remain in its position and observe the migrants' boat until the arrival of a dispatched Maritime Squadron patrol boat.
Protector-class patrol boat P51 reached the scene at about 6.20pm. The AFM personnel immediately started transferring the migrants from their stranded boat onto the patrol boat.
In all, 25 male migrants, claiming to hail from Somalia and the Ivory Coast, were rescued by P51, which is expected to berth back at its Haywharf Base in Floriana, at about 3am yesterday morning.
Meanwhile, the Malta Government yesterday issued a statement and a map about three incidents relating to the responsibility of which country’s responsibility it should have been to rescue three groups of immigrants in the past weeks.
The incidents, which received coverage in the international media refer to the Maltese fishing boat Budafel, the Spanish Montfalco and the French vessel Lamotte Piquet.
The government said that from looking at Malta’s Search and Rescue zone, it is crystal clear that the three vessels in question were miles out of this zone. The government also pointed out that Malta’s SAR zone is some 250,000 square kilometers, the size of the UK.
It also said that it is clear that in all three cases, the responsibility fell on Libya as all vessels were in Libya’s SAR zone. In addition, the Budafel and the Lamotte Piquet were closer to Lampedusa than Malta. The actual positions of the three vessels in question were as follows: Budafel: 62 nautical miles (NM) from Libya, 112 NM from Lampedusa and 120 NM from Malta.
Montefalco: 91NM from Libya, 99 NM from Malta and 133 NM from Lampedusa.
Lamotte Piquet: 76 NM from Libya, 101 NM from Lampedusa and 105 NM from Malta.